Dan Moughamian

Most photographers are familiar with the limitations of modern cameras. Often we encounter scenes with a high dynamic range that forces us to expose for the highlights (or shadows) and work on a fix in post-production. Important details are lost when we do this. The High Dynamic Range (HDR) process attempts to solve this problem by combining a series of raw exposures to create a single image that displays a scene similar to how our eyes would perceive it. This article assumes basic knowledge of creating bracketed exposures (either manually or automatically) with your DSLR, as well as basic knowledge Read more »

This spring, Adobe introduced new tools for digital painting in Photoshop CS5. The new Mixer Brush goes a long way towards creating a realistic simulation of how paints mix and blend with each other on a canvas and with textures on the document canvas. The other side of the equation is the new Bristle Tips, which simulate the physics of real paintbrushes. While it is impossible to cover every facet of these impressive tools in the span of a single article, I can focus on how to quickly get started with these tools, so that you can begin experimenting with Read more »

This is the first of three articles on the significant changes in Photoshop CS5: Content-Aware Fill, Painting Techniques, and HDR. It’s no secret that Adobe Photoshop provides photographers with many tools for accomplishing similar or related retouching tasks. Photoshop CS5 ships with two special Edit commands that work in new ways and achieve high quality results. The new Content-Aware Fill and Content-Aware Heal provide an intelligent means of removing distracting elements in a scene, by predicting what is “behind” these selected elements and then filling the selection or brush stroke with new textures that blend with their surroundings (Fig. 1).